But Plastic Logic's and iRex's devices push e-paper development beyond simply reading letter-sized PDFs, says Wilcox.
But no matter which device comes out ahead, iRex deserves some of the credit.
And unlike Kindle, iRex doesn't have access to Amazon's cheap new releases in digital form.
That's where iRex could take a lesson: A good e-reader doesn't need to show off--it needs to disappear.
The Irex also lacks a Home button, a note-taking function, any way to highlight text and a built-in dictionary.
IRex claims the device has between 60 and 80 hours of battery life, depending on how actively it's used.
And even PDFs, though they may look fantastic on iRex's screen, are still far too small to read comfortably.
Forbes.com got a chance to use iRex's next-generation reader side-by-side with Amazon's Kindle.
IRex advertises that business users can read newspapers and magazines, but only the rare publication offered in PDF is compatible.
In contrast, IRex has aimed its reader at the business world and is unapologetic about its limitations as an e-book.
IRex, a Dutch company, said Monday it will launch a 8.1-inch touchscreen e-reader in the United States later this year.
The DR1000 feels more like a prototype built to show off iRex's impressive screen than a fully tested and polished device.
Where iRex shines isn't in book-formatted text, but in the no-nonsense business and legal documents: Word, HTML and above all, PDFs.
But the iRex's bigger, bolder approach to digital reading is no Kindle-killer.
In its former incarnation as a division of Phillips, iRex developed the original E-Ink display that was eventually licensed to Amazon and Sony.
Even with its outsized price, the new iRex reader won't offer two features also missing from other electronic books: color and video capability.
However, in my tests, I found the Irex much clumsier to use than the Kindle and, because of that, I still prefer the Amazon device.
IRex insists its monthly software updates will soon untangle those snags.
Because the Irex isn't seamlessly linked to its own online store, I had to establish, or sign into, four different accounts to test the device fully.
The Irex looks sleeker than the Kindle, because it has a much thinner bezel around the screen, due mainly to the lack of a physical keyboard.
That software clunkiness, in fact, may be iRex's biggest sin.
Some readers will be willing to make that trade-off, especially if Irex is able to add specialized stores in the future that offer, say, a large selection of non-English-language books.
On the bright side, I was able to easily plug the Irex into a PC and Mac, and manually drag onto it personal PDF files, pictures and even a free book I bought at a Web site.
Reading analyst reports full of charts and graphics on iRex's pretty screen, you can imagine a law firm or investment bank (those that still exist) purchasing several hundred of the devices for its executives, as iRex hopes.
To make the text larger than 10-point font requires zooming in on the document and dragging it around with the iRex's stylus, a naggingly slow process given E-Ink's refresh rate of about one second. iRex claims it redraws its screen faster than Kindle, but in Forbes.com's tests it locked up sporadically and often took far longer to refresh than Amazon's less flashy display.
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